Never give yellow flowers to a lover—it signals a breakup

Setting: A cozy café in Moscow. Snow is falling softly outside. Irina and Dima, two longtime friends in their 30s, are sipping coffee.

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Irina: (gasping as she opens a bouquet) Dima! Yellow tulips? Are you trying to sabotage my relationship?

Dima: (laughs) What? No! You love tulips, and yellow is cheerful. Bright, like you. Why would it sabotage anything?

Irina: Dima, everyone knows yellow flowers mean betrayal or a breakup. It’s basically like giving someone a “We’re over” card in floral form!

Dima: That’s… wildly dramatic. They’re just flowers, not telegrams from the relationship underworld.

Irina: Ha! Easy for you to say, Mr. Science Guy. But do you remember Katya and Misha? He gave her yellow roses for her birthday, and a week later—boom—they broke up. Coincidence? I think not.

Dima: Irina, that’s one anecdote. Correlation doesn’t mean causation. Maybe Katya was already over him and the flowers were just a catalyst—or bad timing.

Irina: But it happens all the time! I’ve read about it. Even my babushka used to say, “Yellow flowers bloom where love dies.”

Dima: Your babushka also believed hiccups meant someone was gossiping about you.

Irina: Exactly! And how often does someone message you right after you hiccup? Hm?

Dima: Every human hiccups, Irina. You probably just check your phone more when you’re annoyed. That’s a classic confirmation bias.

Irina: That sounds suspiciously like a spell.

Dima: (grins) No, it’s just psychology. Look—yellow is associated with warmth, joy, energy. You know, sunshine? It’s not the color’s fault if someone dumps someone else. Blame poor communication or mismatched Netflix tastes.

Irina: Still, I wouldn’t risk it. Flowers are symbolic. Red for love, white for purity, yellow for… doom. Why tempt fate?

Dima: Because if we lived by every superstition, I’d never whistle indoors, sit at the corner of the table, or walk under signs again. And I like whistling indoors. It’s acoustically satisfying.

Irina: Well, one day you’ll whistle yourself into a lifetime of loneliness.

Dima: You see how that sounds, right?

Irina: (laughs) A little. But it’s cultural, Dima. Superstitions carry history. Sometimes they say what logic can’t.

Dima: I agree, they’re fascinating. But history shouldn’t hold your relationships hostage. Look—your boyfriend likes sunflowers, right?

Irina: Yeah…

Dima: So if he gave you yellow flowers, would you dump him?

Irina: No! Of course not. That’s different.

Dima: Why?

Irina: Because… he doesn’t know the meaning. So it doesn’t count.

Dima: Ah! So it’s your interpretation that gives it power.

Irina: Sneaky. You got me there.

Dima: Superstitions are like horoscopes—they’re fun, they give us stories, but they’re not traffic lights for how to live.

Irina: I still wouldn’t give yellow flowers to Oleg, just in case.

Dima: Fine. But if you break up, I’m blaming the texting habits, not the tulips.

Irina: Deal. But if you end up single forever, I’m blaming your indoor whistling.

Dima: (laughs) Fair. Just promise you’ll put those tulips in water before they die from neglect and superstition.